Ricky Martin to play residency at The Park Theater
Ricky Martin promises language — at least any beyond the universal shaking of the Bon-Bon — will not be a barrier at the bilingual spectacle he plans for Las Vegas next year.
“We’re going to create a very beautiful show where everyone’s going to feel pleased,” the 44-year-old Puerto Rican pop star said Wednesday, announcing 18 to 24 shows at the Park Theater in April, June and September. “I’ve always said language is not an issue.”
Fresh off the road from his extensive “One World Tour,” the enduring singer broke the news of both the Las Vegas shows and his engagement, to artist Jwan Yosef, on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” before meeting reporters in the lobby of the new Park Theater Wednesday afternoon.
The Las Vegas show will be exclusive for the singer in North America and overseen by director-choreographer Jamie King, who has year-round work on display in “Michael Jackson: One” at Mandalay Bay.
“Anytime we get together, we do magic,” Martin said of King.
“Every song is going to be a completely different experience … but all integrated,” he explained. The theme will “flirt with the history of Vegas, mixing it with what I am and what I represent.”
The new theater seats as many as 6,000 people, and opens next month at the Monte Carlo. Cher will be another recurring headliner.
Martin launched the U.S. leg of an extensive world tour with a September 2015 concert at Planet Hollywood. The shows supported his 10th studio album, “A Quien Quiera Escuchar.”
While Martin made his biggest pop-culture splash stateside with the 1999 and 2000 signature hits “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and “She Bangs,” he remains a worldwide draw. Pollstar, the concert industry’s trade bible, ranked the tour at No. 47 on its midyear list of Top 100 Worldwide Tours, with a collective gross of $75 million for 23 shows in 15 cities.
Martin’s occasional tour stops in Las Vegas included Caesars Palace dates in 2011. He recalled at the news conference that he believed Menudo, the teen pop vocal group that launched his career, played a Las Vegas concert stop in 1984.
“There is charm, there is good energy in Las Vegas,” he said.
Martin’s management team was involved in an ill-fated production show called “Storm,” which also was directed by King at Mandalay Bay in 2001.
With the press conference heavy on reporters in town for Thursday’s Latin Grammy Awards at the T-Mobile Arena, most of Martin’s answers were in Spanish. He fielded questions about everything from a perceived weight gain — “I blame love,” he said in Spanish — to questions about how he was coping with what are confusing and hard times for many.
“What I do is focus on my family and meditate when I can, and just know that at the end of the day things will be OK,” he said in Spanish.
“With this project I want to give a lot of love and a lot of hope and faith and show people that with hard work you can accomplish anything. I want my community to stay united.”
Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
